Crime writer pens love story

“Suspect,” due out Tuesday, is a departure for crime novelist Robert Crais. No Elvis Cole cracking wise. No Joe Pike cracking heads.

This is a love story, about LAPD officer Scott James and his K-9 partner Maggie, both damaged goods, saving themselves while they save each other. Oh, and while they’re solving a murder or two. It is a Crais book, after all.

The author, who lives in Los Angeles, will be in San Diego Thursday for signings at the Rancho Santa Fe library (12:30 p.m.) and Warwick’s (7:30 p.m.). He answered questions by phone.

Your new book doesn’t feature your usual detectives. How do you know when it’s time to do a stand-alone story?

I wish I could tell you there is some kind of grand plan to this but the way it happens for me is I’ll think of a character or a situation that bites in deep and won’t let go. I began thinking about the relationship between people and dogs and the notion of Maggie came to mind and once she took hold I’m just along for the ride.

Are you a dog person?

That’s kind of the genesis of this. My last dog, a big Akita, died almost 15 years ago. Yoshi was with me for 12 years and when he died I simply could not bring myself to get another dog. It felt disloyal. In the past couple of years I began to think about that. Here I am a grown man, I’ve got a family, my kids are grown. What is it? Why can’t I get another dog?

What kind of research did you do?

I spent time with the LAPD K-9 team and watched them work. I read voluminously about how dogs think, how they process information. It was important to me to make Maggie real. Here I was, everybody knows me for the Elvis Cole-Joe Pike books, and all of a sudden I’m going to do a dog book? I didn’t want it to be cute. I’m not writing a cartoon. I have such respect for the bond people can have with their animals, and such respect for why those animals bond with people, I wanted to make it absolutely as accurate as our current understanding of dog behavior would allow me to make it.

Is that why some of the chapters are written in Maggie’s voice?

Absolutely. See, it’s a two-way street. There’s a line in the book from (K-9 leader) Dominick Leland where he’s explaining to Scott early on why he believes that Scott is not a dog man. He’s describing to Scott the leash and how it isn’t just steel or nylon or leather, the leash is a nerve and it connects you to this animal and what flows through the leash flows both ways: fear, confidence, anger, rage, impatience. The dog is an animal, but the dog feels. The dog can grieve. The dog can get angry and surprised. I wanted to illustrate why Maggie does what Maggie does.

The book is also an exploration of PTSD. Why did you want to write about that?

During my research, I learned that dogs suffer from PTSD, just like people. It had never occurred to me that dogs can also feel it and suffer the exact same symptoms. They can totally change their behavior. They can become withdrawn. They can become anxious and sleepless. They can become snappy and given to exaggerated startle response. When they are treated, they are given the same anti-anxiety medications that people use.

Both Scott and Maggie are trying to heal here.

The notion early on for me was this book, yeah, it’s a crime thriller, but it’s really a love story. It’s how Maggie and Scott, who are similarly damaged, come together as strangers, bond and help each other to heal. For me, that was the strength and the impetus to write this book because I think it’s reflective of why so many people want and love to have dogs in our lives.

When I see a writer like you calling a book “Suspect” I immediately think of criminal suspect. But you are using the word in a different way here.

Completely different. There are a whole lot of levels to that word and to the title. As Leland in the book says, when he’s referring to both Maggie and Scott as functioning members of the K-9 unit, they are both suspect. He doesn’t think they can do it. And even Scott suspects he can’t do it. That was me the writer trying to cut the diamond so there were as many facets as possible.

There’s not a lot of wisecracking in the book. Was it hard for you not to do that this time?

Yes. But there’s a lot of humor. I just use other characters to bring it in. Scott by his nature is not a funny guy. He’s hurt too badly for that. But there’s a lot of comic relief with Dominick and some of the other characters. Hopefully my readers who come to this expecting humor, they’ll still find it in the book. But this is a different kind of book.

Tell me about the Craisies?

Those are readers who are so fond of my work they’ve given themselves this name and they come out to my signings and they’re active on the Internet with websites and message boards. And I love ‘em to death. They know my work better than I do. We have a great time when they turn out, and they always have stuff made up like shirts and hats because they’re just really involved in what I call Elvis Cole’s Los Angeles. Hopefully they’ll embrace Maggie and Scott as well.

Anything different about this signing tour?

It’s shorter. Writing “Suspect” was probably the most emotional writing experience I’ve had of the 19 books because of what I was writing about, because I loved Maggie so much and I find her such a pure heart. I poured everything I had into this book and by the time it was finished I just felt a little drained. So I told the (publisher), let’s trim off the last week of the tour. I just need a little bit of down time. And they were fully supportive of that.

Has all this made you think about getting another dog?

Yeah. I actually think that’s why I wrote the book. It grew out of me trying to understand why I couldn’t replace Yoshi. I spent so much time with Maggie and so much time researching this book and so much time with German shepherds and Belgian Malinoises and these big dogs, I started to think during the writing that maybe I could do it again. There’s so much I’m missing. So I’ve been edging my way toward that.